Month: March 2016

But education goes far beyond informing patients about how to instruct their children to properly brush their teeth, or when a dental bridge should be used. While most patients understand that sugary drinks and candy can be detrimental to your teeth, many patients don’t realize that it’s all sugar that should be avoided, which leads us to our first tip:

While you might not look at potato chips and other starchy snacks as a dental risk, that’s because you’re not thinking about their chemistry. While they might not have a lot of sugar on their ingredient’s list, the starch in potato chips (and other starch-filled items) converts into sugar after you’ve eaten them. If you’ve eaten or served snacks like these, follow them up with water whenever you can. Or, at the best you can opt instead for mixed nuts – which are ultimately more healthy and less likely to allow sugars to bathe your teeth.

Drink More Water

You would likely hear the same advice from your doctor, but don’t be surprised to hear it from your family dentist as well, that is: drink more water. Most dental patients don’t drink nearly enough water. Not only is it helpful to your body, but it also helps to wash away the bacteria in your mouth while neutralizing acid residue as well. If you’re consuming food or beverages that are acidic always remember to rinse, rinse rinse. On top of this, if your children participate in sports and feel inclined to the occasional sports drink, be careful. While these drinks are okay from time to time, water is always better than a sugary sports drink that not only contains calories, but can also be an unnecessary burden on the teeth.

Brush: At the Right Time, with the Right Force

Nobody needs to be told that brushing your teeth is important. However, many patients do need to hear a few not-said-enough warnings about their teeth. First, don’t brush too hard. Brushing too hard for too long can eventually wear down your tooth’s enamel, while also contributing to gum erosion (which can contribute to sensitivity and other problems down the road). On top of not brushing too hard, it’s also important to consider the acid in your diet. Just like we mentioned it being important to wash away acid from your diet, it’s also important not to help it attack your teeth. Brushing too soon after eating acidic can contribute to accelerated erosion and abrasion. Due to this, it’s best to wait for about 30 minutes after eating to brush.

When it comes to your teeth, it’s important to take good care of them – because unlike many other parts of our bodies that can break, repair, and regenerate – you only get one set of teeth.

So if you’ve been going strong with the same pair of teeth for years on end, don’t be too down on yourself if it the prospect of having to replace some (or even all) of your teeth eventually comes up. Sometimes it comes down to genetics, other times it comes down to injury or disease, and (unfortunately) it can also be a matter of improper oral care.

Regardless of the reason, now you’re looking for information on dentures. If you’re a patient looking for affordable dentures in Downey, California we might be able to help you even more, but for now – we’ll stick to information.

One of the many things patients wonder when the prospect of dentures comes up is, “what are the alternatives?”. When you’re facing any medical procedure, it’s normal to be curious about the options available to you. When it comes to dentures, the main alternatives are dental implants and — to a lesser degree – dental bridges.

One of the most common complaints from denture wearers (and one of the reasons so many patients wonder about denture alternatives) is concerning the stability and retention of dentures used for the bottom row of teeth. More often than not, patients hope to avoid dentures falling out or slipping while they talk, which can be inconvenient and embarrassing.

Dental Implants: A Permanent, Non-Removable Alternative
Treatments for this can be as simple as a couple dental implants used to help support and stabilize the lower denture, or even a full mouth of dental implants that effectively replace each individual tooth with a series of prostheses. Naturally, the costs involved with procedures like this can vary widely. In most cases, implants are placed strategically so that fixed dental bridges can be attached to them, which allows multiple teeth to be supported by individual implants.

Snap-On Dentures: Part Implant / Part Denture

Another alternative is what has become known as a “snap-on” denture, which utilize miniature implants for support and stability. These dentures are easily attached to implants carefully inserted into your jaw by our expert implant specialist in our very own clinic. Unlike some traditional dentures, the “snap-on” variety do not rely on the support of a palate “base” that covers the roof of your mouth and snap directly into your mini implants instead. Unlike traditional dental implants, “snap on” dentures are indeed dentures and are designed to be removed from your mouth and easily “snapped” back onto your jawbone. This means that your “dentures” rest directly on your gums, which can drastically decrease soars, discomfort, and virtually eliminate any shifting or wiggling.

Most of all, make sure you see a qualified, professional dentist with years of experience providing dental implants.

Welcome to My Downey Family Dentist. No matter what part of the country you live in, or what your personal dental history is like, there comes a time for the average person when they feel a tingle in a molar or a slight prick of sensitivity in their gums, and wonder, “When was the last time I went to the dentist?”.

It’s at that moment when many patients realize the reason they haven’t been to the dentist, and frankly – the reasons tend to vary. But three of the most popular reasons remain; finances, fear, and fancy. As our first blog post on our brand new website, we’d like to take the opportunity to work through a couple of these reasons, and maybe even make a case for some of the reluctant patients out there to try out a new dentist for a change (maybe it could make all the difference)!

Let’s start with “fancy” or rather, the simple fact that many people around the world simply don’t like to go to the dentist because it’s not an experience they particularly look forward to or they don’t exactly enjoy their chosen dentist. For those patients, it’s important to remember that you’re never stuck! As the patient, it’s always your right to move on to a new dentist if something doesn’t quite click. Whether it’s the environment, your personalities, or the level of care that you don’t like – trying out a new dentist to get the right fit could mean the difference between seeing the dentist every 2 years and seeing the dentist every 6 months – which can make a difference for your teeth.

Another major reason patients tend to put off dental visits is finances. This can be a a big one. While many employers offer dental insurance, many still do not – which can make getting routine dental care a burden, especially when it comes to procedures like x-rays, fillings, and crowns. However, many dentist are happy to work with uninsured patients to make the costs of regular-dental visits (or even specific procedures) more manageable. As the saying goes, “It never hurts to ask.”

Next, we come to “Fear”. Dental fear and anxiety are very real reasons that many patients postpone or completely avoid getting the dental care they need. However, it’s important to remember, whether it’s a root canal or a simple filling, your time in the dental chair never has to be characterized by fear or anxiety. In fact, dental technology has come so far that fear about dental procedures should almost be totally nonexistent due to the widespread availability of sedation dentistry. Sedation dentistry uses a number of tools to eliminate the pain and anxiety felt by patients in the dental chair with a combination of pain relievers (usually anesthetics) and sedatives, the most common being nitrous oxide (otherwise known as laughing gas). In its simplest form, this means that you won’t even feel the ultra-precise dental drill cleaning the cavity in your tooth, all you’ll feel is the first tiny prick from the anesthesia needle. Afraid of needles? No problem – nitrous oxide ensures you won’t have a care in the world (but don’t worry, it wears off at the end of your appointment). For every kind of patient, there’s a solution to make dental visits easy.

So, what’s keeping you from the dentist? Fear? Finances? Anxiety? Chances are we can help.